From Nov. 24, 2008: Like it or not, Bill Snyder will have to become accustomed to a horde of media now that he has become the Kansas State football coach for the second time. It was apparent during the news conference that Snyder has become attuned to the changing face of college athletics.

Published Nov. 25, 2008

MANHATTAN — The modes of transmission are constantly changing.

But whether you're communicating via text or telegram, iPhone or rotary dial, Bill Snyder believes the message is what matters.

Monday, the 69-year-old Snyder announced his return as Kansas State's football coach, a post he occupied from 1989 to 2005. He anticipated the question skeptics were bound to ask, then answered it emphatically.

"The question is, can you relate to today's young person?" said Snyder, who met with his team for the first time Monday night. "When I meet with our players, they are probably going to think that question. I don't know whether they will ask it or not, but they will certainly think along those lines.

"I'm going to answer the question before it's asked. My answer would be, if you care, I can relate to you. If you work hard, I can relate to you. If you want to do right and be a good person, I can relate to you."

That's not to suggest Snyder hasn't kept pace with the changing times. He maintains a listserv — "That's the key word in this environment," he said — so he can e-mail his former players. He traded his Cadillac sedan for a new SUV and started studying up on the spread offenses permeating college football.

"I'm getting text messages now," he said. "You're envious, I know."

Snyder acknowledged the way those changes have shaped society, for better or for worse. The same technology that allows Snyder to stay in touch with family members and former players provided a medium for early reports of his return to coaching, something he termed "disrespectful."

Understanding — and managing — the present environment will be crucial to the success of his second coaching stint, Snyder said.

"Information is transmitted daily, frequently and completely," he said. "Our society changes people, and it certainly changes young people. Young people can text all day long. In 1989, they didn't know what 'text' meant."

Snyder is not Gary Patterson, the up-and-coming coach many Wildcat fans had hoped to land. University president Jon Wefald, whose fingerprints are evident on every major coaching move at K-State, insisted Snyder was his first choice and ultimately the best option for K-State.

"Once it became apparent that the position was open, I was hoping that he might be interested," Wefald said. "You know Bill — it takes a while for him to make up his mind. I was just keeping my fingers crossed that he was at peace with it."

Wefald also brushed aside any concerns about Snyder's age, pointing out K-State's new coach is young by Republican Party standards.

"You might remember Ronald Reagan in his second term, 1984 through 1988," Wefald said. "He started that term at 72. I would guess that many people would say he was one of our better presidents.

"The Republican nominee, John McCain, was 72, and did anybody ever say he wasn't young enough to hold down the position of President of the United States? Millions of people voted for him, and he got the nomination."

A more applicable comparison might be Penn State coach Joe Paterno who, at age 81, has the Nittany Lions bound for the Rose Bowl. Paterno assembled a strong staff of assistant coaches to aid his cause, and it is assumed Snyder will do the same.

"I don't have all those plans in place," said Snyder, who agreed to a five-year contract worth $1.85 million per season. "My plan and my approach was I needed to find out if this was going to work, if I needed to do this. That is where my focus has been the past week or so."

It should be noted that K-State hired a young, up-and-coming coach after Snyder retired in 2005, and Ron Prince's tenure lasted less than three years. At the time, it was believed a young coach could help K-State re-establish recruiting connections that weakened in the latter part of Snyder's first stint.

That recruiting advantage never materialized, and the need for stability now appears to outweigh the need for new energy.

"I would hope that I can settle the waters," Snyder said. "I think K-Staters, to a degree, are in a state of flux. The important thing is to be able to smooth those waters and draw the K-State family back into a true family."

Prince was a Junction City native, but his East Coast influence was apparent. While Prince operated with the air of a corporate CEO, Snyder vowed to remind Wildcat fans why the word "family" follows his name on the facade of the stadium.

"The people of Kansas State are a different type than you might find on the East Coast or West Coast," he said. "We all know this to be a blue-collar, lunch-pail environment. That is all I know being a Midwesterner, and it allowed me to fit into this kind of environment. I don't want us to grow out of this particular environment, and that will be part of my job."

Snyder acknowledged that learning to communicate with a new generation of athletes will be part of his job as well. But with the benefit of experience, he has identified some principles that transcend changing technology.

"You have to develop some understanding of where these young people are coming from," Snyder said, "because they are not coming from the same place they did 20 years ago."